Allen Iverson tuned in on the NBA Finals in 2017 and empathized with how LeBron James felt. The Cleveland Cavaliers were hoping to secure back-to-back titles that year, but the Golden State Warriors were too much to handle.
The Dubs closed the series out in five games to win their second NBA championship. That ending looked very familiar for Iverson, who lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in five games as well in the 2001 NBA Finals.
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“LeBron’s the best in the world, but sometimes the better team beats you, man,” Iverson said in a video released by the Big 3 in 2017. “They got beat by the better team. It happened to me before, it happened to me before.”
LeBron’s Finals losses didn’t make him a terrible player
The Cavs‘ defeat in 2017 was the fifth time James fell short in the Finals. Prior to that, he suffered an embarrassing Finals loss to the San Antonio Spurs ten years ago. In the 2015 Finals, LeBron and the Cavs lost to the Warriors for the first time. He also experienced two Finals losses during his stint with the Miami Heat.
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Even though Bron experienced more defeats than victories in the Finals, many NBA legends still recognized his greatness. Apart from Iverson, Magic Johnson also once commented on James’ Finals losses.
According to Magic, it’s easy for people to criticize because they don’t have an idea about how hard it is to win a championship. Like Iverson, Johnson also reckoned that sometimes, the better team wins, but that doesn’t mean James was a terrible player.
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“He carried that team. He was a one-man show,” Johnson said of James in 2015. “And when you look at the numbers he put up and not just scoring himself, but the assists and rebounds, he was the best player on the floor for either team. And I think that he really just cemented his legacy as one of the greatest. Now if he can win a couple more (titles), he can be up there in the top three or four guys that have ever played this game.”
“If anybody is trying to badmouth LeBron James, they don’t know basketball, because this guy is tremendous,” he added.
LeBron’s championship legacy isn’t about the wins
Both Iverson and Johnson knew firsthand how difficult it is to lead a team to an NBA championship. For them, sometimes it wasn’t the championship victory but the obstacles that a player had to face that made them legendary.
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It’s also why they could feel for King James. Allen and Magic didn’t need to see LeBron hoist the championship trophy in front of everybody or parade all over the city to appreciate his hard work. Win or lose, they were both convinced that LBJ gave it all he had for his team.
As it stands, James has reached the NBA Finals 10 times and has a record of 4-6. It may look underwhelming to some fans, but for those who witnessed his journey in those championship series, that record already speaks volumes about LeBron’s greatness as a player and a leader.
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Sep 7, 2025, where it first appeared in the Old School section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.